The North Coast 500

[LukeW]

Day 5 saw us travel from neist point to fort William, via eilean donan Castle, invermoirston falls, fort Augustus. 

 

The day was mostly dry with some stunning views of the south of Skye and then the rundown the A87 and then the A82 along loch lochy 😁. Again some stunning views and fantastic roads. 

 

We did cheat this day by having a camp site booked as we were staying next to Ben Nevis ready to climb on day 6! 

 

roads across Isle of Skye!

 

Eilean Donan Castle

invermoriston falls.

 

 

[LukeW]

lochness!

[LukeW]

Loch lochy!

 

run down into fort William 

 

camp with Ben Nevis lurking in the background. 

[Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative]

Hope the ascent of Ben Nevis went well. I love walking up the British mountains and will be interested to hear how you got on.

[LukeW]

Day 6 updates (sorry for delay, been a busy couple days)

 

we managed to get a bit of final preparation in for our 3peak challenge next week by climbing Ben Nevis.the climb started nice and dry but the top was always covered by cloud. 

We didn’t stop much on the way up and completed the ascent in 1:58:47 making it up and down in 3hours 45minutes. 

 

After a bite to eat, we decided to press on towards Glasgow to try and make our last days travel a little shorter. 

This involved the road into and out of glencoe so did manage to drive the road that skyfall was filmed on. 

It was however a very very wet day for driving. 

 

We we had a quick stop just outside Glasgow to see family and then headed to the west coast in order to begin our run down the coast and Galloway Forrest on our last day. 

 

Thankfully the rain rain subsided by the time it came to setting up camp!

 

min our way up 

Snow in July! 

not a great view from the top! 

 

another view on the way down once out of the clouds 

the road from glencoe, I was lucky to drive this whole road so didn’t take any pictures, will sort through go pro footage when I get time and update. 

Its a great road and some fantastic views of the valley! 

[LukeW]

Right now I have some more spare time I can update the final day to our trip. 

 

Day 7 an eventful one, 

having camped around the largs area the plan was to then drive the west coast down through Ayr Girvan bay down to Stranraer then across the bottom through dumphries, before finding a camp in the north of England before heading back down the m6,

 

However, 30 miles into the day I discovered yet again my rh half shaft had come loose from my hub. 

Luckily it was loose and not popped out so able to piece it all back together. These were all be rebuilt with loctite last September having discovered it on on a Peak District run so another tech thread to follow to try work out why this is happening 🤬.

 

It didn’t dampen our spirits as the weather was glorious, with the car all back together without serious damage, we decided to cut short the coastal drive and cut through the Galloway forest before heading to dumphries the m6 and home a day early, stopping regularly to check the newly tightened m8 bolts in the half shaft. 

 

The weather was was great but a little too hot given the cooling issues that we had been running with all week but did manage to keep it under control until we arrived home around 19:30.

 

Total distance for the trip across the 7 days 1785 miles, and everyone of them spent smiling regardless the weather. 

 

Im glad I was able to share the driving as it is a loooong time in the saddle, plus you miss soo much of the cracking scenery that’s on offer, when concentrating on the road. 

 

Anyone that’s thinking of the trip or wild camping in general, I defiantly recommend it. You can get as close or as far off grid as you please and really is a great way to see so much without having to be at a specific place for a specific time. A lot of the time we spent looking for suitable camp was decided by where the sky was clearest meaning we could at least get the tent up in the dry. 

 

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to some beautiful places around the world and this trip is up there as one of my favourites, only I haven’t had to sit in a plane for 14+ hours to get there. 

 

Stunning place and I will certainly be back soon! 

 

 

 

coastal road from Ayr to Girvan bay before our troubles

A couple after The car troubles when cutting through the Galloway Forrest! 

[LukeW]

 

and some one more from after the car troubles. 

Not as dramatic as the scenery in the highlands but non the less good and the roads were great too! 

[Julie Hall - WSCC AO Representative]

10 hours ago, LukeW said:

Luckily it was loose and not popped out so able to piece it all back together. These were all be rebuilt with loctite last September having discovered it on on a Peak District run so another tech thread to follow to try work out why this is happening

 

Exactly this happened to my car when I first bought it. Glen had found that they were loose, so he loctited them. When he checked them a few weeks later some of them had come loose again. He took them out one by one, cleaned them in paraffin, dried them off and then re-loctited them. You have to get all the grease out of the threads. 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Exactly as Julie says, threadlock will only work properly on clean, dry, degreased threads.

[Greenstreak-Andy D]

31 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

Exactly as Julie says, threadlock will only work properly on clean, dry, degreased threads.

Or replace the bolts for new, they are not expensive items. 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

1 hour ago, Greenstreak-Andy D said:

Or replace the bolts for new, they are not expensive items. 

Won’t help if the threaded holes aren’t clean, dry and degreased too, though.

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

9 hours ago, Greenstreak-Andy D said:

Or replace the bolts for new, they are not expensive items. 

He's bought new 12.9 ones! Though his original ones were this grade too!

[LukeW]

On 06/08/2020 at 22:18, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

Exactly as Julie says, threadlock will only work properly on clean, dry, degreased threads.

This was done the first time I had it happen to me and they were paint marked and checked regularly 

including before the big jaunt north. 

 

As Ian said I have now put new bolts in clean and fresh loctite will monitor how it goes 

I followed the same procedure on the other joints on rear axle and these are solid 

it’s only the right hand side hub side that comes undone. 

[MR.C]

We used to do the highlands on sports bikes,glencoe,the road along lochness, Inverarry used to be a favourite

the castle in green looked like something out of a fairy tale!

Awesome fast roads.